Puella Magi Tsubasa Magica
by hiss13
Summary: Twenty years before Walpurgisnacht appeared in Mitakihara, Tsubasa, the sole survivor of an incident which wiped an entire town out, makes a contract with Kyubey and slowly discovers the dark truth behind the destruction of her home town. The story is composed solely of OCs with the exception of Kyubey and Kirika.
1. Contract I- Res Evanescens

Contract I-

Res Evanescens

**Sekainari City-Red Line Terminal September 9th 12:13**

Five swords fell to the ground and stabbed it in a pentagonal arrangement. From the hilts of the five swords came five sky blue mana strings. Each of the mana strings was connected to the blade of a sword held by a lone girl in flight. Five objects fell at about half a meter away from each of the swords while a single object fell into the center of the pentagonal array. They were originally two pairs of limbs, a head, and a body. However, as they fell to the ground, they disintegrated into black particles and faded away. The fading body left behind a single egg-like object, which had a long needle point that dug into the ground.

The swords and the mana strings disintegrated as the girl slowly descended down to the ground below her. The girl held a single katana in her right hand. On the same hand, she was wearing a black fingerless glove that extended up to her elbow and a four plated armor that covered the back of her hand and extended back to her elbow. On her left hand was a thin, black elbow-length glove. Each shoulder had a piece of armor on it. She wore a thick, white, sleeveless shirt with long coattails. Around the neck hole, there was a sky blue color. Along the center of her shirt, the blue strip ran down from the neck to the end of the shirt. The blue strip diverged and covered the ends of her trench coat. A breastplate was strapped to her chest. On the center of this breastplate, a wing shape was carved in. She wore a simple blue pleated skirt that extended to halfway to her knees. Her hair extended to her elbows. She had blue eyes and black hair. A single large bang covered her right eye. A halo of ten centimeters in radius hovered few centimeters above her head. Two distinct wings extended from her back. On her right side was a dove-like wing. On her left was a wing composed of multiple blue fragmented mana crystals, which were separated by small gaps.

The girl reached downwards and picked up the egg-like object.

"Another Grief Seed…," she muttered

"You seem to be on a roll, Tsubasa," said young girl of about the same age. This girl was wearing a plain school uniform, which resembled a sailor uniform with a navy blue skirt that extended to the knees. Her hair colored resembled a sunset while her eyes were an orange tinted amber. She jumped across multiple cube shaped towers and landed in front of Tsubasa weakening the impact with her feet through magic.

Tsubasa's wings, swords, and armor quickly converted to mana and converged into a single point creating a light blue egg-shaped gem with some black stains on it. The bottom half of the gem was covered in a golden metal while the top half had 5 golden pieces leading to the bottom half from the top point there was a small wing design.

"Despite how it looks, it's not that hard to do, Tokiko." Tsubasa said to the other girl.

"But, it seems like you're overdoing it right now. At this rate, your Soul Gem will corrupt completely." A worried tone came from Tokiko.

Tsubasa lightly tapped the Grief Seed to the Soul Gem and the impurities were completely absorbed into the seed. In the background, the cube-covered witch's labyrinth disappeared revealing a surprisingly deserted train station. Tsubasa sat down on a bench and looked upwards at the ceiling. A small glare came down from the afternoon sun next to the edge of the ceiling but she ignored it.

"That witch was stronger than normal, so the Grief Seed payoff was better. See?" Tsubasa said calmly while displaying her Soul Gem above her head to Tokiko before shouting. "OI! Kyubey! Where'd you disappear to!?"

A small white creature with red eyes scurried quickly on its four limbs.

"I see you got another grief seed."

Its voice resounded to the two girls but its mouth never moved. Telepathy.

"Just shut up and take it." Tsubasa was obviously not pleased. She tossed the seed back to Kyubey, who opened a red tear-shaped compartment on his back and let the seed fall into it. "NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Kyubey looked tilted his head while looking at Tokiko.

"You should probably make yourself scarce. Tsubasa looks pretty pissed off." Tokiko silently said this to Kyubey while waving her hand quickly in front of her face and winking.

Kyubey turned around and walked towards the shadows.

"You could try being a bit more calm. Yelling at him really won't help the situation." Tokiko attempted to calm Tsubasa down.

"I can't. It's all that bastard's fault. If it weren't for him, maybe she would have never been born. Nobody would have been killed. The witches would have never existed in the first place. Just…" Tsubasa began rambling while holding her hands to her face as if trying to block something out.

Tokiko walked slowly up to in front of Tsubasa. She placed her hand on top of the head of the rambling girl who then stopped talking and looked up. "Calm down. We can't have you turning into a witch right now. Just vent that anger on Kagami when the time comes. Let's just head back to school. The lunch break is almost over. Plus, when the spell I placed wears off, this station will become as crowded as usual."

"Fine…." Tsubasa acquiesced as she stood up and walked with Tokiko out of the train station clenching her fists forcefully. She loosened her hands and reached into her bag to pull out seven grief seeds. She stared at them silently for some time.

"When looking at these things, it's hard to imagine that they were once Puella Magi like we are," she pondered out loud. "It's like some twisted cannibalism…being forced to survive off of each other's deaths."

"Don't think too much into this. We're going to end what Kagami started so it's best not to start mulling over things too much. Those things in your hand right now are our greatest assets." Tokiko pointed towards the Grief Seeds. "Including the seven in your possession, we now have thirteen Grief Seeds as our healing items…"

As a result of cutting down on use of the Grief Seeds, they were able to keep a large amount in reserve.

"By the way," Tokiko said, wanting to point something out. "Did you notice that there seemed to be another Puella Magi in the labyrinth? I caught a couple of glimpses of one moving around a lot and it looked like she was trying to set something up."

"I sensed somebody but I didn't really pay her any mind. But….if she was setting something up there, it was most likely a Labyrinth Break. I can't think of any other kind of spell that requires location-based set-ups. That means…that the last labyrinth was Kagami's most recent target…

"In the end, we are finally getting closer. That bitch. Her head is almost within my grasp." Tsubasa said this as they walked out of the station while holding her hand up to the sun and clenching her fist.

* * *

**Amakusa- Commercial District March 8th (Three Years Prior) 15:37**

I was twelve when it happened. It was so bizarre and horrifying that I never imagined that something like it could ever happen in reality…

But it did. On that day, my life had changed forever.

I lived in a quiet suburban area within a small city called Amakusa.

I was running some errands that day and I got somewhat sidetracked at the mall. I had walked into a video game store to do some quick window-shopping and shortly after, I went to the bookstore to look at some of the new light novel and manga releases.

It was around 4:00 pm when I, picking up a book from the shelf, heard a piercing scream from outside of the mall. I ran and looked out the window to see what looked to me, from that limited window, to be Lovecraft-style abomination. At least, that's what I expected to see. But what I saw instead was what looked like a human being in most aspects. However, her right hand was covered up to her elbow in a black color with minor silver ripples spreading. Her right eye was completely black. Her teeth had fangs. Her clothes were burned and tattered. On her back, I saw three spikes emerging on each side about a foot each. She was wearing what looked like armor broken on each limb. Next to her left foot was the corpse of a woman.

As she raised her left arm up above her head, I noticed that it was not a human hand but a dragon's claw covered in blood. I knew what would happen next, but I could only watch in horror at the events that happened. She quickly swung down her left limb and created a large shockwave that destroyed a large amount of buildings.

I turned to see the other people around me staring, paralyzed in fear at the almost surreal scene around me. As I looked back at the humanoid creature in front of me, I saw something running down her face.

"Tears..?"

Her face became strained as she began to hyperventilate. I looked to her back and I noted that she the spikes grew out of her back and became the skeleton for what looked like dragon wings. As this happened, blood began pouring down from her back. When the spikes fully grew out, she lifted her right arm parallel to the ground.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN, NOW!" I screamed as I dived onto the floor to the side. The next thing I heard was an explosion and an eerie ring behind me.

After a minute of silence, I got up and noticed that there was a huge hole in the wall in front of where I stood earlier. Behind me was a line of emptiness. Everything that was in front of her hand had been annihilated.

I looked out of the hole again to see the girl holding her hands above her head. Between her hands was a small black mass, which seemed to have sparks all around it. At this point, it was obvious to me that she was no longer in control of herself.

She, in tears, mouthed one small phrase before she dropped her arms parallel to the ground again.

"I'm so sorry."

At that moment, my vision turned completely black.

* * *

**Amakusa-Former Commercial District March 8th 17:52**

It was warm. There was a warm feeling of a sticky dried liquid on the right side of my face that was planted on the ground. I opened up my left eye and saw a small glare from the sun over all of the rubble of the city. I kicked off some small pieces of rubble off my foot and got up.

As I got up, I noticed a searing pain in my right eye. I looked at some of the scattered glass in the area and noticed that my eyelid was shut and there was a cut straight down the eyelid. I realized that my right eye was damaged by some of the shrapnel in the area.

I looked further around to notice that amongst the debris, corpses were littered all over the place. Some were maimed. Some were crushed.

No mercy. No discrimination. Lifeless.

Yet, I could still hear sounds. It didn't seem like screams or panic. Rather, it seemed to sound more like a clash. So, I forced my legs to move and I walked. Right towards the source of that strange sound. A sound which seemed to be reverberating from the direction of my home.

* * *

**Amakusa-Near A Certain Girl's Home Match 8th 18:45**

A girl was crying. She had killed. Her own hands took many lives. Yet, she hated that thought. She was unable to stand herself. The sight of her was repulsive. Monstrous. Hateful. She was unable to control herself.

Yet, in front of her stood one girl with a green sundress and a gun-blade. She had warm eyes. Eyes that pitied her. Eyes that wanted to accept her. Yet she couldn't be accepted. So they fought. They continued to fight. Hours had passed without a single side letting up.

And then, another girl appeared.

* * *

**Amakusa-Near A Certain Girl's Home Match 8th 19:04**

I could see it: a girl who looked like she was a few years older than me with blue hair in a dress and gun-blade fighting with the girl from earlier.

They were at a standstill. The winged girl was unable to get close to the gun-blade user and the gun-blade user was unable to land any decent shots on the winged girl.

I couldn't help but pity the winged girl. Throughout all of this, she was crying. She had no desire to cause harm but was being forced to do so anyway. It was too cruel.

At the same time, the gun-blade wielder fascinated me. There was an aura of hope that radiated from her. At the same time, there was an evident look of pity in her eyes. She held the same sentiment as I did. Despite that, she had been fighting for the sole purpose of ending the winged girl's suffering.

I took another step forward in awe and tumbled over, accidentally alerting the two opposing parties of my presence.

The gun-blade wielder turned her head away slightly to see me while the winged girl took the opportunity to land an attack. She lunged in aiming her left hand directly at the stomach of the gun-blade wielder. As the claw reached her stomach however, the gun-blade girl gripped at her weapon in her left hand immediately and slashed in a straight diagonal upwards. However, in that time, the winged girl had already forced her hand through the gun-blade girl's navel. Pieces of what looked like a light green colored gem flew around.

The winged girl slowly faded away while silently mouthing a short phrase.

"Thank you."

As I looked towards the gun-blade girl, she looked at the fading figure with a warm smile before collapsing on to the ground. Her weapon fell to the ground as it shattered into multiple bright green pieces that fell to the ground and faded into the air.

"It's over…?"

I walked over to the corpse that was lying in front of me. I knew I was unable to do anything about it. So, I just stared at it for a second before looking around at the rubble and the remains of the city.

I hated myself, the sole survivor of this incident. I hated myself for being unable to do anything.

I continued to walk until I reached the location where my house was supposed to be. I had lost all feeling of shock by then as the entire house had already collapsed. The name-plate on the house saying 'Amami' was lying there. I could see a couple of arms of people crushed by the rubble of the house. My parents' arms.

Nothing was salvageable from the wreckage at this point. I could picture everything. The scene of my protective parents trying to escape and find me. The scene of their faces as they uttered my name, hoping that I was alive.

"Tsu…basa…"

It was too grotesque. I shuddered before I fell onto my knees and broke out into a spell of tears as a number of negative feelings flooded into my heart.

Hatred.

Regret.

Depression.

I wanted to do something. I wanted to turn back time and prevent everything. But I couldn't. So I just cried.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Abandoned Seaside Warehouse September 9th 13:06**

"You know, Saki." A girl with blonde hair and green eyes was sitting on top of a large crate with her legs crossed. She was dressed in a thin red blazer with a white, collared t-shirt underneath along with a half-thigh length pink skirt. On her neck was a red cloth choker with lace on either end. Next to her right hand was what looked like a drill standing on its bottom and pointing upwards. "I was impressed when you succeeded in synthesizing that, albeit imperfect, Puella Magi-Witch hybrid two years ago and caused the destruction of Amakusa by letting it loose. But recently, you've slipped...kinda…completely. You have been unable to pull your weight at all recently."

She jumped off of the crate while holding her drill to in front of Saki and held her hand out in front of the quivering girl. "Hand your soul gem over and step back."

"Kagami, what…"

"Hand it over immediately." Kagami made a simple demand and a simple glare before Saki could even question her. As a result, Saki reluctantly put the Soul Gem into Kagami's hands and moved back a few steps.

Kagami held out the soul gem before her in her left hand and picked up the drill in her right and began to scrape at the Soul Gem with the tip of the drill.

Saki began gasping and her body started to twitch and spasm in pain. She fell onto the ground supporting her body with her knees and hands.

"Kaga…mi…Why…?"

"Everyone look at this display. This is what will happen to failures from this point forward. Depending on the magnitude of the failure, the punishment will vary. We have reached stage where failure is intolerable. Understood?"

As Kagami looked around, she discerned silent agreement from all of the other Puella Magi within the ranks of the organization. She then removed the drill from the surface of the Soul Gem and put it down in front of Saki. She then turned her back on her.

"That should be enough. Although, you understand what the consequences of another failure will be. Right, Saki?"

Saki had stopped writhing and pain and grabbed at her Soul Gem. She was still, however, shuddering. She no longer felt pain, but hatred and anger. The Soul Gem glowed for a quick second and Saki had donned armor over her legs, chest, and arms. In her right hand was a one-handed estoc.

Within an instant she charged forward to right behind Kagami, who had, in that instant, calmly turned around ducked right under the estoc. In that next second when Saki was unable to control her movements, Kagami jammed the drill straight into Saki's left breast piercing straight through the armor and shattering a gem that was there. With in that second, Saki made one last utterance before falling over lifeless.

"Damn you, Kagami…."

Kagami looked at the corpse that lay before her feet and grew a large sadistic grin. "HOW ASININE!" She began to repeatedly kick at the body. "You really thought you could defy ME!? WHAT! A! JOKE! You really were better off dead, you damn failure."

She broke out into a state of laughter as the barbaric sounds of a body being defiled echoed along in the warehouse.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of _Puella Magi Tsubasa Magica _out of many more to come. This is my first fanfic and I am actually pretty pleased at how it came out so far.

As you can see, I don't focus too much on witches. The story is going to focus a lot more on the interactions between the Puella Magi as I am not exactly good with describing witches and their labyrinths.

Updates will not be too frequent as I don't usually have the free time to write. However, I plan to update whenever possible.

Thank you for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it and will enjoy much more to come.

Until next time.

* * *

**Author's Note (12/13/2012):** It's been a month and a half since I actually wrote this and Chapter 2 is on its way soon. Due to the impending doom known as finals, however, I have yet to finish writing it. Once those are done, I will finish Chapter 2 and write all of Chapter 3.

To anyone who has read this before, you will notice that I made a couple changes. This was meant to fix some discrepancies that I did not want to arise later on due to some later events. At the same time, I have also changed the chapter title. While it still means the exact same thing it did before, I am going to say that all chapter titles, like this one, will be in Latin from now on. Part of it is my love for gratuitous Latin and at the same time, it arises, in part, due to my love of the Negima manga.

That was just my little status update. Expect a new chapter within the next 3 or so weeks.

Also, please review this. All constructive criticism helps.

Until next time.


	2. Contract II- Repens Congressus

Contract II-

Repens Congressus

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal High School September 9th 16:06**

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

The school day was over, but I was still sitting at my desk in the second row, staring out of the window, and tapping my pen repeatedly.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Perhaps it was just agitation. Or was it perhaps excitement?

I really was unable to determine that.

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._

After all, everything was finally starting to come to a close. The events in Amakusa that day…are finally being wrapped up.

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. __Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._

"Hey, are you ready to head out yet?" A door opened at the side of the classroom closer to the blackboard, prompting me to turn around and stop tapping my pencil.

"About time, Tokiko. What took you?" She was standing there at the doorway.

"Hey, I'm the Iincho [1]. Don't forget that."

I got up from my seat, put on my sweater and picked up my bag as I headed to the door. As she picked up her bag and sweater from her desk at the front right corner next to the door, I walked up to her out of the classroom and shut the door behind me as we walked out of the school together.

It is said that we never know what we have until we lose it. At the same time, we can never fully gain back what we lost. But…when we do gain that back, we begin to cherish it and never take it for granted. I never really thought about it like this before, but then again…I guess nobody ever does until they actually lose something important.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th (Three Years Prior) 9:02 **

"Alright. Please come in."

A timid looking girl opened the door to the classroom slowly and cautiously. She had black hair with a single bang above her right eye. She slowly walked into the classroom while avoiding eye contact with the students sitting in the classroom. She walked until she stood next to the teacher's desk in front of the whiteboard. While holding her bag, she turned to face the class while fidgeting with her thumbs and tilting her head slightly downward.

"Come on, write your name on the board and introduce yourself."

The girl put her bag down while leaning it on the teacher's desk as she made her way to the board and wrote some characters down. She turned back towards the class and softly said,

"Amami…Tsubasa…Pleased to make your acquaintance…"

She bowed her head slightly as she said this and then looked back up. As she looked up, she noticed the awkward silence amongst the students in front of her. After a few seconds of that silence, there was a loud cheer. Words like "cute" and "huggable" were thrown around.

She even could swear that she heard someone shouting, "That's moé! She's totally moé."

As Tsubasa's eyes widened in surprise at the clamor, she noticed that most of the class was cheering with the exception of five people.

One was a lone girl sitting in the front row and center column. She was a girl with a sunset orange hair color. She seemed more immersed in a book she was holding than the surroundings. Her amber colored eyes held an expression of apathy.

The other four were a group of people who sat in the back corner towards the door in a square arrangement. Tsubasa assumed from their condescending expressions that they were more likely than not the class's "clique".

As she shifted her attention back towards the rest of the class,

"Rika-Rika! Can we keep her?" The girl, who cried moé earlier, directed at the teacher.

"That's Takino-Sensei to you, Aeka!" An annoyed Takino Rika-sensei yelled. "Besides, she's not a pet! Why are you asking if you can keep her?"

Tsubasa silently chuckled to herself at the rowdy scene.

_Maybe…I can actually fit in here._ She thought.

It was quite the boisterous group of people but Tsubasa was unable to deny that it was still enjoyable.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th 12:22**

It was a mob scene.

Well, that's what I would have said if I wanted to exaggerate it.

Needless to say, a crowd was forming around me. I could understand why. The sudden transfer student is the type of clichéd development meant to introduce a new character in an anime. This kind of thing is rare in reality. As a result, people would want to see this new kid and get to know them better. The attention was somewhat annoying, though. But I digress.

Within this mob scene, I could hear question after question being thrown at me. Among them were "What's your favorite color?" and "What kind of shampoo do I use for my hair?" The answer to the former is light blue, the color of a clear sky, and the answer to the latter is a secret, by the way. At the same time I heard someone ask "Are you an alien, ESPer, or time traveller?" Surprisingly, Aeka was not the one asking that.

"So, where did you go to school before this?"

"I went to a public school in another city. Due to circumstances, I moved out here and enrolled in this school."

I'll admit it. Vagueness has its merits. No matter what they asked, I really wanted to avoid mentioning Amakusa in any form. The kind of stigma that the incident had was not exactly something any sane person would call pleasant. Thankfully, the media never connected me to the incident as the sole survivor since doing so would endanger me. As such, I was able to live without being treated as an outcast. However, that meant that I had to keep silent about the incident itself.

"What's your family like?"

"I am actually an only child. My direct family…all died in an accident recently."

It was not a complete lie that I had said there. The incident in Amakusa that killed all of the residents was labeled as an "accident" by the media. My words were merely a minor stretching of the truth as I intended it to sound more like a car accident or a fire.

My response, of course, led to some adverse reactions amongst the others. A lot of the students had begun whispering. Some of them were saying things about the possibility that their prying was insensitive.

"It really isn't insensitive," I replied while keeping an empty smile on my face. As long as the incident itself was never brought up, I was perfectly fine divulging part of my past. In the corner of my eye, I could see a blonde girl sneering at me. If I remembered correctly, she was one of the "clique" kids. As such, I just ignored her.

"So, what kind of club activities were you a part of in your last school?"

"I was in the kendo club, actually. I learned how to use both itto style and nito style techniques. The others in the club said that I was actually pretty good. But…I never really participated in competitions. So, I'm not really all to certain whether they were being genuine or just being nice."

"Wait." One of the boys interjected. "Why wouldn't you take par-"

"The thing is, I really dislike too much attention, " I interrupted. I know what I just sounded seemed a bit arrogant, but it is a true statement. I really dislike an excess of attention. That response seemed to garner an awkward silence.

One condescending voice then broke that silence. "What's with the hair in front of your eye? Is that supposed to be your attempt at a fashion statement?"

I noticed that the voice came from the blonde.

"Ahh…you don't have to pay attention to her." A girl with short, black hair and a strap around her skirt with a small, white bunny plush attached spoke. On her right hand was a fingerless glove extending half-way up to her elbow and on her left arm was a black wristband. "Tsuruko is not the type of person you want to associate yourself with in any way, so just ignore her."

I looked around for a second before speaking. "I really don't mind answering that." As grateful as I was for that advice, I really hated submitting to other people. I pulled up the bang over my right eye to reveal a large scar on my right eye, which reached from a centimeter above my eyebrow to the bottom of my lower eyelid. "I was involved in the accident my parents died in. During that time a piece of shrapnel scraped across my eye. Shortly after that, I lost all use of my right eye."

"Tch." Tsuruko clicked her tongue and walked out of the room with an expression of annoyance.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th 12:45**

My interrogation was otherwise uneventful. Despite all of the tension that arose from some of the questions, the mood lightened up shortly after Tsuruko left. Afterwards, only one person remained in front of me. It was the girl from earlier who warned me to stay away from Tsuruko.

"Well, that took guts, to say the least," the black-haired girl said. "I can't honestly say that was a smart move, though."

"Why is that?"

"Well, she doesn't take well to anyone attempting to bite back at her," a new voice resounded. It was the voice of the amber-eyed girl who was reading the book earlier. She was walking up to me while clutching at the book in her left hand. "She is infamous amongst the student body. She has her own band of people which she controls all on her own and as a result has more power than the student council or the staff. She has ruined other students for even standing up to her. Avoid her at all costs and never confront her if she comes to you."

"I guess I'll have to take that to heart then, huh." I sighed deeply.

"Now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, allow me to introduce myself," said the amber haired girl. "My name is Kiyomizu Tokiko. I'm the class rep here."

"Ahh, right," the black haired girl said afterwards. "The name's Kure Kirika. Just call me Kirika. Nice to meet you."

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th 15:15**

"So, are you thinking of joining any clubs?" Kirika asked.

"I'm thinking of joining the kendo club. Since I was part of the kendo club before, I think it would honestly be easier to continue that. Plus, I like having an excuse to carry my shinai."

"Well, the kendo club meets in the gym in the back." Tokiko spoke. "If you want, we can take you there. The kendo club captain is a close friend of mine."

"There the Iincho goes again about her friends," Kirika sighed.

"Her name is Kuwashima Touko. She's a bit energetic, but she's a nice person. She'll help you fit right in." Tokiko chuckled for a second. "I think you'll like her."

Tsubasa mused over the idea for a bit. After some minor contemplation, she agreed to go.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th 15:21**

Apparently, there are multiple gyms in the school. This was done to accommodate all of the clubs. As such, I expected the gym to be pretty small. When I entered the gymnasium, I was surprised. Kirika said my mouth was wide open when I saw it.

"Your jaw dropped," she said with a laugh. I pulled myself together immediately afterwards. "Well, it's not all too surprising that you'd react that way. The place is pretty big."

I looked to Tokiko who looked like she was scanning the gym.

"Touko-chan! There you are." Tokiko looked to her and waved, catching the attention of a person who was already dressed in guards. She made her way over to the three of us and took off the _men_ [2] on her head and unwrapped the towel around her head leaving her shoulder length crimson hair to fall. She had hazel eyes which displayed a certain air of calmness and openness.

"So, you're the new transfer student, huh," she said.

_How quickly does word get around this place? _I wondered.

"Well, I think it's time for us to head out." Tokiko said.

"Thanks, Tokiko. Kirika."

"Well, see you tomorrow." Kirika said as she walked out of the door with Tokiko.

"Yeah. My name is Amami Tsubasa." I extended my hand out to the girl.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kuwashima Touko, the captain of the kendo club." She gave me a welcoming smile and extended her hand out to me while still wearing her _kote_, taking hold of mine. "So, I take it you want to join the kendo club."

"It's more like I'm taking a look at the club. I'm not even sure if I want to join a club at all." I replied.

"Hmmmmm...How about a quick spar then?" Touko offered.

"Wha?" Of course, I was dumbfounded for a second.

"The rules will be altered slightly, though. The first person to score two points wins. Does that sound fair?"

"Uhhhh…"

"We'll even lend you a hakama and the necessary equipment for the spar. How about it?"

I began to notice stares from the other people in the gym including Tokiko and Kirika. I sighed, "Fine. I'll do it."

* * *

**Sekainari City-Sekainari Municipal Junior High School May 8th 16:29**

Fifty-eight minutes had passed since the two girls started sparring. The two girls were tied with a point each and the third round was underway. Throughout the match, it looked like the two girls were even. The match attracted an audience of the remaining kendo club members when Tsubasa scored the first point of the match.

Touko was holding a single shinai, clutching it fiercely with both hands. Three feet away from her was Tsubasa holding two shinai. One was a short shinai resting in her right hand, which she held in front of her. Her left hand, which held a normal length shinai, was raised a foot above her right hand.

Tsubasa was breathing heavily. Throughout the match, Tsubasa was mainly on the offensive. However, Touko's smooth maneuvers and quick defensive stances prevented Tsubasa from making any clean hits on her guards.

"You're pretty good at this." Touko panted out.

"Thanks. The same goes for you."

"Now…"Touko breathed in as she quickly made a step forward while raising her shinai. As she took her second step with her right foot, she swung down the shinai while aiming at Tsubasa's head.

Tsubasa immediately blocked with her left shinai and veered inward bringing her right hand shinai down to Touko's right arm. Touko shifted her left foot back and dodged. Tsubasa shifted towards her right and balanced herself before she noticed Touko coming in with another strike. She immediately shifted her left foot out to brace and caught Touko's shinai with both of her own.

Tsubasa then brought her left leg in and back to once again stabilize her balance. With that, Tsubasa lifted her right leg and pushed in, slamming her left shinai down into the gap between her right hand shinai and Touko's shinai while pivoting it about the contact point. She slammed the shinai down onto Touko's helmet and slammed her foot down while shouting, "_MEN!_"

A silence took hold of the gym as everyone stared in disbelief. The club member acting as the referee said with a stunned voice, "Point…and match to Amami Tsubasa!"

Tsubasa collapsed, panting, into a kneeling position and dropped her shinai to the ground as she leaned on her right leg.

"That was a pretty good match," Touko said as she reached her bared hand towards Tsubasa. "Are you okay? You look pale."

Tsubasa took her hand and stood up while walking to a bench on the side of the gym. She stripped off the borrowed _men_, _kote_, _do_, and _tare_ and placed them at her side as she removed the towel wrapped around her head. "I'm fine…just somewhat tired," she said as she let her hair drop back down. She drank half of the water from a water bottle she brought with her and looked back at Touko and a few others, who had followed her.

"But, really, Amami-san. That was incredible. Very few people have ever been able to take the captain on equal footing. All of those who were able to have already graduated." One of the girls said.

"It was just luck." Tsubasa replied. "There were too many moments in the match in which I just barely was able to prevent attacks from hitting and even when I was on the offensive, she blocked easily." She looked at Touko with a minor scorn. "It was almost like the captain threw the match."

"While I didn't throw the match, I did hold back at first." Touko replied. "But, you started pressing me to a point where holding back would have been a bad idea. After all, you were just warming up at first. Once you were in top condition, it was pretty hard to block your blows."

The discussion continued on between Tsubasa and the kendo club for another half an hour before Tsubasa began to head home. She still was not all too sure about whether she was going to join the kendo club or not. However, she was sure of one thing.

_That was way too much attention_.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Northern Bloc (20, 29) May 8th 17:15**

Sekainari City is a mostly circular city. The only aberration is the eastern wharf which closer to the center than the remaining edge since the harbor is shaped like a thin wedge into the circle. The center of the city is a park and is denoted as (0, 0). The first number is the block number while the second is the angle from the Northern axis in degrees. The city has 360 angular divisions from 0-359 such that zero points directly north. The financial district and the shopping district are both close to the center of the city. The school is located at (4,9).

Since the school is close to the center of the city, students at the school usually find it easy to commute there. While there are normally buses running from all corners of the city inward, I find that it's much more pleasant to commute whenever the weather is nice.

I was about twenty blocks away from the school and one thirds of the way home when I noticed something in an alleyway that I passed by on the left of me. It was pure coincidence, but I noticed a weird scene.

I saw what looked like a high school student pointing at another with a knife. The one with the knife had the other boy cornered into a wall. He was about midway into the alley in a darker section so, nobody noticed him. I stood back behind the corner of the alley and avoided being seen. From what I could see, the victim was being silenced and as such was unable to call for help. From what I could see, the assailant's eyes were completely blank. There was no malice. No hatred. Not even any bit of killing intent. It was as if he was being controlled like a puppet.

I sighed for a second. I really could not leave this alone. Ignoring this would definitely come back to haunt me and the police would be unable to make it in time.

"I'm going to do something stupid." I sighed.

I was going to jump in and intervene.

I repeated those two ideas in my head multiple times before taking a big sigh.

I turned into the alleyway and took one step before running into it. As soon as the assailant noticed my approaching, he pushed his potential victim aside and ran towards me with a knife in his right hand. I kept close to the wall on my left. When we were within a meter of each other, the assailant immediately attempted to jab the knife into my forehead. I took the bag in my right hand and put it right in front of the knife which subsequently hit the bag dead center and impaled it so that a small portion of the knife stuck through the back end.

I let go and pivoted to right next to his right arm. In that instant, I slammed the arm into the wall next to him, which led to him reflexively letting go of the knife. The assailant moved back by a few steps.

I picked up my bag that was lying on the floor and pulled out the knife. I then took the knife and stowed it with the blade facing downwards into my bag. The assailant backed away by a few more steps before turning around and running.

"Tch." I looked at the mystified victim who was still on the floor. "Whatever you do, don't contact the police. Leave and forget that this ever happened."

It was an unreasonable request, I'll admit. However, there was no way I wanted to let the situation be further complicated by more intervention. Without another word, I began to chase after the assailant.

* * *

**Sekainari City-Wharf, Eastern Bloc, Abandoned Warehouse 08 May 8th 18:20**

After chasing after the high school student assailant, we eventually ended up on the eastern edge of the city. I was able to catch up to him and knock him out by jamming the handle of the knife he dropped into his celiac plexus.

When he fell unconscious at the entrance of the warehouse, I noticed something on the back of his neck. I looked to see a circular border with a block that had a spiral curving around it. On closer inspection, I saw that the spiral was a snake. Within the circle seemed to be red dots and splatters scattered around randomly.

_A Rod of Asclepius covered in blood…What a weird tattoo…As much as I hate that I couldn't figure out why he was acting the way he did, at least it's over._ So I thought.

As I stood up, I noticed something splattered all over the door of Warehouse 08. I walked closer and saw that on the door was the same symbol that was on the boy's neck. A Rod of Asclepius covered in blood enclosed in a circle was drawn across the center of the door.

Out of curiosity, I placed my hand on the warehouse door. At that moment, my hand went through the insignia and I tripped into the symbol.

* * *

**Witch's Labyrinth-Medina May 8th 18:23**

I simply landed flat on my face. It was not exactly enjoyable. I lifted my face off of the cold hard floor and rubbed my nose as I looked around me. The scene around me was quite bizarre. Everything looked almost as if it was constructed out of cardboard. If there was anything I could say with absolute certainty, it was this: I certainly was NOT in Warehouse 08.

What I saw was the inside of a hospital. The ceiling was three times as high as a normal hospital and the hall was five times as wide as it would usually be. I looked behind me and noticed that the entrance I tripped into had disappeared. As I got up and picked up my bag, I walked to the door next to me that was labeled "Experimental Samples". I opened it to find a room filled with multiple jars filled with formaldehyde. Each jar had some sort of sample inside it.

"What the hell?! Where am I?" I knew that it was pointless asking, but I blurted those words out anyway. I slammed the door shut and continued onwards in hopes of finding an exit. After a few minutes of walking straight down the corridor, I notice that there are a couple of carts with surgical supplies moving quickly in the same direction that I was. I continued moving until I noticed a door with a sign saying "Operating Room" on it.

I took a deep breath before opening the door. Once the door opened, the floor slid under my feet as if it was a conveyor belt and pushed my to the center of the operating room. Once the floor stopped, a surgical light was turned on and directed at me.

I looked forward to see what was a large green snake coiled around a twig which was 6 meters high. It proceeded to unwrap itself from the twig and use its tail to grab and lift it off of the ground. I attempted to back off slowly and reached for the knife, which I stowed away in my bag. As this happened, the twig was immediately replaced with a massive scalpel of about the same height. The snake lowered its head to right in front of me. It then immediately pointed down the scalpel from above and pushed it straight downward. I immediately dodged to the right and saw the scalpel dig in two meters into the OR floor.

At that moment, I attempted to throw the knife into the snake's left eye as it pulled out the scalpel. The snake simply lifted its head to avoid the knife, which slid away by a few meters. The snake once again swung the scalpel down towards me and I proceeded to dodge to the left. However, the snake held the scalpel with its handle parallel to the ground and touched the blade to the ground before swinging it like a bat in my direction. As soon as it hit me, my body was knocked over and rolled around for about 3 meters and landed face up.

Luckily, my body was relatively unharmed. As I tried to get up, I noticed that my legs were not moving. I was unable to move my legs at all.

_Am I really giving up here!?_  
The snake slithered over to my location and towered over me as it prepared to use the scalpel again.

_Dammit! I don't-_

The snake swung down.

_WANT TO DIE HERE!_

"DILATION! TIMES ONE-THIRD!" An echo rang out as an amber flash impacted the snake's tail near the scalpel and pushed it away. The tail let go of the scalpel and it flew away.

The amber flash then landed in front of me before charging into right below the snake's mouth. Within the next second, a black aura erupted from the ground beneath the snake, slowing it down.

A black stream erupted from the right of the snake before tilting downwards and slashing the snake diagonally. Once the stream hit the ground, the snake fell apart into two large end pieces and two small middle pieces. The pieces of the snake faded along with the scalpel and what dropped was a small black ellipsoid with points at the ends of the largest axes.

The orange flash landed next to where the black stream landed and both faded to reveal…

"Iincho…? Kirika…?"

"Ahhh…IT'S YOU!" Kirika shouted in surprise.

The class rep was dressed in a thin white trench coat with two orange stripes from her shoulder down and short sleeves along with an orange brooch. She had an orange and white striped knee-length skirt. On her feet were a pair of armored shoes. Her hands had brass knuckles on top of thin white gloves that extended to her elbow.

Kirika was dressed in a thin, black coat with two large coattails extending from her back and two thin coattails extending from opposite sides of her waist while crossing behind her back. The collar of her coat extended to the bottom of her ears and there was a square-shaped opening in the front of the coat below her neck that ran to her chest. Across the opening there was a black 'x' that extended from her coat collar to the bottom of her opening. Underneath the opening was a white collared shirt with a red tie. The bottom end of the white shirt and the ends of the sleeves were ruffled. She wore a black skirt typical of an office lady that went a foot below the bottom of the shirt. On her feet was a pair of loose black boots, which extended half-way to her knees, and a pair of white stockings that extended to 6 inches below her skirt. At the edge of the fingers on her right hand were three large curved claws.

The outfits dissipated off of their bodies and left their normal school uniforms and a gem appeared in each of their hands. Kirika picked up the black ellipsoid object off of the ground.

"Hmm…it looks like only enough for one use." Kirika said.

"Then you use it. Yours is more corrupt at the moment." The class rep replied.

"Alright." Kirika tapped the ellipsoid to the gem in her hand. "Done. Hey Kyubey! I have another one!" She tossed the black object to behind her.

A white cat-like creature with bunny-like ears coming out of its ears and rings around those ears appeared and caught it in an opening on its back which was then closed.

The background OR then faded away and we ended up near the door of Warehouse 08. I looked to the door and noticed that he sigil on it had disappeared.  
"Wait, weren't you gonna leave, Kyubey?" Class rep asked.

The creature called Kyubey shook its head and stared at her for a second.

"I see…" Kirika replied. She then walked up to me while the class rep followed behind and reached her hand out. "Do you think you can stand, Tsubasa-chan?"

I took her hand and she pulled me up. I noticed that I was able to move my feet again. I stood up and looked at Kirika for a second.

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine." I say as she lets go.

"That must have been quite the frightening experience, huh?" Class rep said.

"I was looking eye-to-eye at death right there. I think frightening is an understatement." I replied in a snarky manner.

_Well, now that that's out of the way, allow me to speak_. A third voice had chimed in. I looked around to see where the voice was coming from but I was unable to find anyone.

"You might want to look down in front of you." Kirika replied.

As I looked down, I saw the creature they called Kyubey looking at me.

In a creepy manner, it spoke to me without even opening its mouth. _Hello, Amami Tsubasa. My name is Kyubey. I would like you to enter a contract and become a Puella Magi_.

I only had one response to the request. "Huh?"

* * *

**Footnotes**

[1] Class Representative

[2] This is the helmet used by kendo participants. Kendo participants have four guards- the _men_ which is the helmet, the _kote_ which are the gloves, the _do_ which is like chest armor, and the _tare_ which is worn beneath the _do_.

* * *

**Author's Note**

And so, Chapter 2 is finally complete. Originally, this was meant to be longer and extend up to Tsubasa's wish but that would, I think, almost double the chapter length. Chapter 3 should extend to Tsubasa's wish and will most likely be shorter than this one. Unfortunately, I don't know when I will get the chance to write it since my classes are already piling up the work even on the first week of the semester.

Second…no more kendo matches in this story…ever. The only research I did was on Wikipedia combined with a couple of videos on youtube and the first two episodes of _Bamboo Blade_.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I am also starting to write a new crossover fic called _A Certain Absolutely Lovely City_. Check that out as well. *Shameless advertising*

Thank you for reading my second chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

_Please review._

So, I lay down my pen until next time.


End file.
